Mail-bag catcher.



L. PALMER.

MAIL BAG CATGHER. APPLIOATIOH FILED JULY 15, 1912.

1,069,71. Patented Au 12, 1913.

2 SHBETBSHEBT 1.

zmm 66 COLUMBIA I'LANouRAPfl'cu, WASHINGTON, njc.

L. PALMER.

MAIL BAG GATGHER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 15, 1912.

Patented Aug. 12, 1913.

SHEETS-8:321 2.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 50., WASHINGTON, b. c.

LEWELLYN PALMER, OF LA MOURE, NORTH DAKOTA.

MAIL-BAG CATCHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented A11 12,1913.

Application filed. July 15, 1912. Serial No. 709,318.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LEWELLYN PALMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at La Moure, in the county of La Moure and State of North Dakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Bag Catchers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide an extremely simple and highly efficient mail bag catcher adapted for use to automatically deliver mail bags from a platform or station crane into a passing car, and to deliver a mail bag from a passing car to the said station crane.

Generally stated, the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a view showing the station crane in elevation and showing the car and track in transverse vertical section, and illustrating my invention as applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a plan view illustrating the cooperative actions of the station and car cranes, some parts being sectioned on the line m 00 on Fig. 1, and some parts being broken away; Fig. 3 is a detail view in vertical section taken on the line :0 m on Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a detail view illustrating the construction of the bag grapples, preferably used as a part of my mechanism.

The numeral 1 indicates a track rail and the numeral 2 the body of the mail car, the same having the customary side door opening 3.

The numeral 41 indicates what may be assumed to be a station platform and on which is secured a pedestal 5 of the station crane. The upper end of this pedestal 5 is bifurcated or formed with prongs 6 and 7, to the former of which the crane arm 8 is intermediately connected by a complex joint which, as best shown in Fig. 3, comprises a pivot 9 and a swivel 10. The pivot 9 permits pivotal movements of the arm 8 in a vertical plane and the swivel 110 permits a pivotal or oscillatory movement of the said arm in a horizontal plane.

When the arm 8 is set in an operative position, its left hand end, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, is under a retaining flange 11 secured on the upper end of the arm 7 of the crane pedestal 5. To the outer free end of the crane arm 8, two reversely projecting back receivers are secured. Each of these back receivers, as shown, comprises a U- shaped bar or fork 12 to the outer ends of which cooperating grapple arms 13 are pivotally connected. The bows of the forks 12 are rigidly secured, as shown, by metal straps 14, to the end of the crane arm 8. The grapple arms 13 normally extend into the cooperating forks 12 at an angle of about 45 degrees to the prongs thereof, and they are yieldingly held in contact with their free ends by coiled springs 15, shown as applied to segmental stems 16, secured to the said arms 13 and working through perforations in the prongs of the forks 12.

In Fig. 1 the character 7 indicates a mail bag which is supported from the station crane.

- The so-called car crane comprises a yokelike metal frame 17, preferably constructed from steel tubing and comprising a vertical portion and horizontal upper and lower arms. The upper andlower arms of the said frame 17 are arranged to slide through bear ing heads 18 secured to the upper and lower ends of the vertical shaft 19 that is journaled or mounted for oscillatory movements in bearing brackets 20 secured to an adjacent post of the doorway 3 and located just inside of the car, by projecting slightly in the said doorway. This adapts the said frame 19 to he slid into and out of the car by movements of its arms through the bearings 18. It also adapts the said crane to be swung into and out of the car by rotary movements of the shaft 19 and the bearings 20. Also, when the frame 19 is drawn inward and swung parallel to the side of the car, it may be drawn endwise nearly out of the doorway.

To the outer end of the lower arm of the frame 17, a bag receiver, preferably of such construction as those applied to the arm 8 of the station crane is attached. But in this instance, a single bag receiver is employed and this is made reversible to adapt it for action in both directions of the travel of the car. Of the parts of this reversible bag receiver, the numeral 12 indicates the fork and the numeral 13 indicates the spring pressed grapple arms. The fork 12 is rigidly secured to the bearing block 21 that is pivotally mounted on the end of the lower arm of the frame 17 and is adapted to be rigidly secured thereto in either of its two horizontal positions by means of set screws 22. The numeral 23 indicates a brace rod, which, at one end, is pivotally connected to the lower arms of the frame 17 and is provided with a hook at its free end that detachably engages with an eye 24 secured to one post of the doorway 3 (see particularly Fig. 2).

The character 1 indicates a mail bag supported from the station crane in position to be delivered to the car crane, and 3 indicates a like mail bag supported by the car crane in position to be delivered to the station crane. These mail bags, at their ends, are provided with rings 25. The numeral 26 indicates spring grapples applied to the ends of the coiled springs 27 and adapted to be detachably engaged with the rings 25 of the mail bags. The upper ring of the mail bag 7 is adapted to be engaged by one of the grapples 26 which is attached to the spring 27, the upper end of which is anchored to the intermediate portion of the crane arm 8, and the lower ring of said bag is adapted to be engaged by one of the grapples 26 which is secured to the spring 27, that is attached to the upper end cable 28 the lower end of which, as shown, is anchored to the platform 4.

The upper ring of the bag 3 is engaged by one of the grapples 26 which is applied to the spring 27, the upper end of which is anchored to the upper arm of the frame 17; and the lower ring of said bag is engaged by a grapple 26 attached to a spring 27, the lower end of which is anchored to the intermediate portion of the long arm of the frame 17.

The operation is substantially as follows: In Fig. 2, the full lines indicate the relative relation of the parts when the car is moving in the direction of the large arrow marked at the right on Fig. 2; and the dotted lines show the position of the parts of the car crane when the car is moving in an opposite direction. It will be noted that the mail bag supported by the station crane and by the car crane are offset, both laterally and vertically and are thereby set out of line with each other. Also, itwill be noted that the bag receivers of the station crane are vertically offset from the bag receiver of the car crane, and that the station crane holds a bag in position to be delivered into the bag receiver of the car crane, and that the car crane holds the bag in position for de livery into one or the other of the receivers of the station crane. Hence, two mail bags may be simultaneously delivered, one from the station crane to the car crane and the other from the car crane to the station crane. When under the movement of the car a mail bag is delivered into a bag receiver of either of the cranes, the spring pressed grappling arms of the receivers will open up to permit the contracted central portion of the mail bag to be delivered into the fork of a receiver, and then the said grappling arms will close and hold the bag in the said fork. When a mail bag is thus delivered into the receiver, it is readily pulled from the crane from which it is taken, simply by yanking the rings 25 out of the yielding grappling arms 26. The initial force produced by disengagement of a mail bag from the crane arm of the station crane, will oscillate the said crane arm far enough to disengage the secured end thereof from under the retaining flange 11 of the crane pedestal 5; and when this is done, the said crane arm will drop and its bag receiver will thereby be lowered within reach of a person desiring to remove a bag from the said arm or to apply a bag thereto. hen a mail bag is delivered to the receiver of the car crane, the crane frame 17, as soon as the brace rod 23 is disconnected from the eye 24, may be thrown bodily inward, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and may then be turned into a position entirely inside of the car.

The bag catching and delivering mechanism described while extremely simple, strong and durable, is highly efficient for the purposes had in view.

What I claim is:

The combination with a car having a side door opening, of a crane frame mounted for both pivotal and sliding movements at one side of said door opening and having bag holding and bag receiving devices that are offset from each other, so that they are adapted to cooperate, respectively, with the bag receiving and the bag holding devices of the station crane, and a brace rod pivotally connected to the outer portion of said frame and detachably connectible to the car body to hold said frame projected from the side of the car in position for action.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LEWELLYN PALMER.

Witnesses E. BLoEDow, JOSEPH BRADY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

